As we’re celebrating Earth Day, BMW made an announcement, perfect for the occasion. The German brand decided to amp its efforts in the field of renewable energy and expand its collaboration with various companies in this regard. Starting this week, BMW will be doubling down on its efforts to deliver more clean energy, in California for now.
For quite some time now, BMW has been working with dairy farms to produce renewable energy via biodegesters. Basically, bio waste was used to create methane gas which was then used to create energy. Additionally, BMW launched a partnership with CalBio, a developer of over 90 dairy digesters in California to increase access to more clean energy sources.
These collaborations generate enough renewable energy to offset all BMW and MINI EV charging emissions in the state of CA with clean energy. Additionally, that energy is also exported to the public power grid, providing over 11 million kWh of renewable energy to the state. The result is a reduction of 27,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year, which according to the EPA, is the equivalent of the carbon benefits of planting a forest the size of San Francisco.
Dairy farms can produce renewable energy using biodigesters, which capture methane from cow manure that would otherwise enter the atmosphere as a powerful greenhouse gas. The methane is transformed into renewable energy and then exported to the public power grid, replacing the need for fossil fuel power plants. By capturing methane that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere, dairy digesters create a double emissions benefit.
The California Air Resources Board recognizes this with a ‘negative’ emissions score, meaning that diary biodigesters not only offset carbon emissions, but reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The BMW Group’s dairy digester partners are recognized as being among the cleanest sources of energy in the state of California. You can learn more about the whole process by watching the video below.
